Trudeau's bizarre plan to spend $9M on edible crickets backfires
By ALYSSA GUZMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 15:54 EST, 15 November 2024 | UPDATED: 15:58 EST, 15 November 2024

Justin Trudeau's bizarre plan to invest nearly $9 million in an edible cricket factory has backfired after the company laid off two-thirds of its staff. The Canadian Prime Minister, 52, invested $8.5 million of state funds into Aspire Food Group in June 2022 to help 'develop innovative ways to meet the demand for more sustainably grown food,' a press release said at the time.

Last year, the London, Ontario, factory opened up its 150,000-square-foot space that was supposed to hold 4 billion crickets at a time and create 13 million kilograms of edible cricket protein per year, according to The National Post. However, the company laid off 100 of its 150 staff members, according to its CEO David Rosenberg (pictured). Rosenberg said the company will be 'hiring back up in July' and will be cutting its production lines down to 'four times a week instead of two shifts a day every day,' he told AgFunderNews (AFN).
'The company reduced its employee base, mainly in production, while these changes - an updated design of how the crickets live in their habitat - are incorporated,' he told AFN. 'We had crickets everywhere,' he told The London Free Press . Workers told AFN that they were 'handed termination letters after our shift' in a 'shocking' move.

'It is devastating, honestly. Most of us have families, we have rent to pay,' one worker told The London Free Press. 'Production has been up and down.' Another worker told The Free Press that they were not offered severance pay and some workers are considering legal action. 'They told us they had run out of funding and we’re not getting anything,' they added to the outlet.
However, Rosenberg said 'everyone will be treated well by us' and they would receive severance. 'We are running out of funding. The economics of keeping people until July did not work. It is tough but it has to be done.' Roughly 25 percent of the company's funding came from the Canadian government, while 30 percent came from a loan, according to AFN. The rest came from equity.
Aspire's product is largely being used in pet food supplied in North America, but they were working on deals to get it into human food as well, the then-CEO Mohammed Ashour told AFN in March 2023. The company was supposed to be at 100 percent capacity by early 2024 and would have enough orders to maintain production. The company - started by five McGill University students - drew government attraction due to its sustainability as crickets have a lower environmental footprint than meat and dairy, according to The National Post.

The crickets aren't the only setback Trudeau has seen lately as his citizens are furious he refused to release the names of 900 Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada after WWII. Jewish groups have called the decision 'disgraceful' and say it dishonors Holocaust victims and survivors. The Canadian government is concealing the list of names amid fears it could be too embarrassing for the country, TNC reports.

The list of members of the Nazi-led SS Galicia unit was compiled by the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada. The decision was met with disgust from Jewish nonprofit B'nai Brith. 'For decades, B'nai Brith & David Matas, B'nai Brith Canada's senior legal counsel, have fought for full access—only to face endless delays and stonewalling,' the organization said.

'Canada is withholding hundreds of Nazi war-crimes files from the public. This disgraceful secrecy dishonors [sic] survivors and denies justice.' Bernie Farber, who is the son of a Holocaust survivor and a past member of the Canadian Jewish Congress, branded the decision 'a shameful blot.'


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ga...ckets-backfires.html

I have some Canadian friends and a few of them are very vocal about how much they dislike this guy and what an idiot they think he is. Hopefully Canada can get rid of this clown.

If only there had been some way of predicting such a flop. Has there EVER in the history of the US or Canada been a situation such as this?

Dur. Hur.

Nobody eats insects, spiders, centipedes and other creepy-crawly things unless that's all there is to eat. Allied POWs in WWII Japanese camps, and other conditions of enforced starvation, ate bugs.

Someday, Canadians might come to their senses and vote this asshole - more accurately, since this is a parliamentary system, his party - out. But not today.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

Interesting. 9 million?

I have an idea where he can get a deal on a 'burger'...

Ottowa, Toronto and Monteal is our NYC Chicago and LA on Steroids.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
I have some Canadian friends and a few of them are very vocal about how much they dislike this guy and what an idiot they think he is.

Here is Mick Jagger, completely misreading the room, showing what Canadians think of Trudeau.

Meanwhile, at the Prime Minister's house:

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Ottowa, Toronto and Monteal is our NYC Chicago and LA on Steroids.

Don't forget Vancouver. Too bad it's hard to avoid if you want to ski Whistler.

Elon Musk is predicting Trudeau will be defeated in the next election.

MCGA

The problem in getting rid of him has been that the potential replacements are worse.

I've spent the last 3.5 years in a global engineering role which includes the oil & gas in Alberta. Additionally, I lived in Calgary (i.e. biggest city in Alberta) for 2 years which included when Trudeau successfully ran Obama's hope and change platform to become PM.

Alberta is conservative, but it does have liberal transplants (e.g. kind of like Californians moving to Texas). The conservatives I know loathe Trudeau. Having a beer with them after work, I've repeatedly heard how much worse it is for Canada than the US news shares.

Canada's leader of the conservative party is Pierre Poilievre and he's an Albertan.

Still, he's anti-Trump. All of Canada, with few exceptions, would seem to be California from one end to the other. Even so, I think if they voted him in, Trump would be able to negotiate a deal he would agree to.

Poilievre says he’d fight Trump economic policies, tariffs ‘with fire’

quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:
Still, he's anti-Trump.

I wouldn't say he's anti-Trump, he's just prioritizing Canadian interests over US interests, which he should be doing as a candidate for Canadian PM. He's open to negotiations, and he's going to fight for his side just like Trump would fight for our side...nothing wrong with that.

Honestly, I don't see the need for heavy tariffs on the Canadians since their economic situation is pretty comparable to our own. It's not like Canada is undercutting American labor costs with slave labor and sweat shops. But if they're acting like a lot of socialist countries and subsidizing certain industries with government money then that creates an unfair advantage that also needs to be addressed. I'll bet if Poilievre stays true to his stated ideals and steps his country back from a lot of the socialist crap that he's been speaking out against, he and Trump will get along just fine.

Send PITA up to the cricket protein plant.

Trudeau will indeed loose the next election. His party if far behind in the polls and going down.
The issue is that the next election is October 2025 and Trudeau is spending like there is no tomorrow. Almost like he is trying to destroy the country before Poilievre is elected.

quote:

Originally posted by TSE:
Trudeau will indeed loose the next election. His party if far behind in the polls and going down.
The issue is that the next election is October 2025 and Trudeau is spending like there is no tomorrow. Almost like he is trying to destroy the country before Poilievre is elected.

Kinda Like Biden, He Just loaded Zelenskyy with another fat piggy bank.

Crickets might make sense as poultry feed. Might even be good for them.

I wonder what the conversion efficiency is to go from grain to cricket to chicken vs to go from grain to chicken.

I have never been literally starving, but I would have to be at that stage before I’d deliberately eat bugs, and I’m not sure I’d do it even then.

Call it a phobia, irrational thinking, or whatever, but one of the things I like about living where I do is the extremely low bug population. I know it’s just what we become accustomed to, and the time may come that people in the West consider them to be fine fare, but all I’ll say is that someone else can have my share.

And the idea is one more of those things that I can’t help but suspect is a “good for thee, but not for me” dreamed up by the so-called Green crowd.

The Greenies hoot and holler about "sustainability" but there is nothing sustainable about lithium batteries, PV panels, or windmills.
We have oil and gas to last for centuries.
And as far as food is concerned: we can continue to produce enough real and nutritious food to feed the world. Heck, if Canada warms up there will be millions more acres for cultivation.
The limiting factor is cheap energy. We can get it with nuclear fission, eventually fusion; and for another hundred years oil and gas will do just fine.